TOWER OF BABEL
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens….
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Genesis 11:4 (NIV)
NATIONS & LANGUAGES
Have you wondered how we ended up with so many different languages around the world?
What about where all the various groups of people, races, and nations came from?
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We've definitely wondered about these things and have learned that the Tower of Babel story is the key to answering these questions.
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This event, and the importance of it, often gets overlooked by The Church.
This rebellion story, along with the rebellion story of the sons of God in Genesis 6, is critical for understanding much of Bible, both Old and New Testament. It helps us understand God's response, the current state of the human race, and how it impacts us today.
Many are familiar with this story in one way or another. Most of us know it as the time when mankind was speaking the same language and God decided to confuse and mix up the language. This resulted in many languages and the inability to understand one another.
Some may also know this event as the time when God scattered the people all over the earth and possibly split the earth, which was one large land mass at the time, into different continents. For more on this see the In The Days of Peleg / Pangea page.
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So, there are definitely some strange things going on in this story that really aren’t discussed in the mainstream church environment. Why? What was really going on here and how does it impact us today?
TOWER OF BABEL STORY
​​Genesis 11:1-9 (NIV below)
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building.
6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel - because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
BACKDROP
After the flood, God asked Noah and his family to repopulate the earth. Everyone spoke one language at that time and there was one ‘religion’. The people worshipped and followed the God of the Bible.
Israel wasn’t yet in existence at the time of the tower of Babel (it wasn’t around until the time of Abraham).
Individuals had free will and they chose to be rebellious. Deuteronomy 32:17 (LEB) tells us:
They sacrificed to the demons, not God,
to gods whom they had not known,
new gods who came from recent times;
their ancestors had not known them.
Who are these new gods from recent times?
THE TOWER
Why a tower?
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As part of the free will rebellion, the people decided to construct a tower in an effort to bring the gods they were now sacrificing to and worshiping down to them – they could meet with, worship, and sacrifice at one location. Everyone would reside in the vicinity of this tower.
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens….
Genesis 11:4 (NIV)
This verse references a tower that reaches to the ‘heavens’. This doesn't necessarily mean that the height was to be as high as the heavens. The emphasis should be on the fact that the top would be dedicated to the heavens signifying a place to worship. See the notes in Dake's Annotated Reference Bible, Old Testament, Book of Genesis, page 9, note M, for more information.
Archaeology has revealed that ancient cities were dominated by a temple complex, including a tower, known as a ziggurat. It was square at the base and had sloping, stepped sides that led upward to a small shrine at the top, like a pyramid.
Ziggurats were dedicated to particular gods. These weren't gods or idols made of wood or stone, but lesser gods, originally created by the one true God of the Bible. This is addressed in more detail further down the page.
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The design of a ziggurat made it convenient for a pagan god to come down to his temple, receive worship from his people, and bless them. In this case, God decided to come down and He wasn't thrilled with what was happening. For more detail see the Zondervan Archaeology Study Bible, page 20, note for verse Genesis 11:4.
GOD'S RESPONSE
Due to the rebellion against Him, in favor of other gods He created, God decides to mix up their language, separate, and scatter them around the earth.
Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other.
Genesis 11:7 (GNT)
The ‘us’ being referenced in verse 7 are the members of God's divine council or assembly, referenced in Psalms 82. The members of this council are lower or lesser gods, other elohim (gods), created by God.
Some believe that the ‘us’ being referenced are the other members of the trinity (son/Jesus and the holy spirit), but since they are already ‘one’ why would God give himself this directive? It doesn’t make much sense.
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With this response by God, now that the people were scattered everywhere, new boundaries and nations were formed for the first time in history!
NEW LANGUAGES & NATIONS
When God responded, their language was mixed up or confused immediately. People were speaking one language and then all the sudden - BAM! Some we’re speaking other languages – all instantly unable to understand one another. Imagine them all standing around looking utterly dazed and confused by what was going on!
The Lord also scattered them from their current location all over the earth, which stopped the tower from being built, among other things. That is why it was called 'Babel' - because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world and He scattered them over the face of the earth.
We see more evidence of their rebellion from God in Deuteronomy 29:24-26 (LEB):
24 And all the nations will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done such a thing to this land? What caused the fierceness of this great anger?’ 25 And they will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out from the land of Egypt. 26 And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know them and he had not allotted to them.
​Some believe the scriptures only reference a division of people and languages. Others believe the earth was physically divided or split and broken down into multiple land masses assisting with the disbursement of people and languages. For more on this see the In The Days of Peleg / Pangea page.
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But the story doesn’t end there! In Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (ESV below), we learn that God put boundaries and nations in place after scattering the people and assigned members of his Divine Council, other elohim (gods He created), to look over the people in each of these locations.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
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The 'sons of God' being referenced above in verse 8 refers to the lesser gods created by God (other elohim).
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Basically, at this point God disinherited the people due to their rebellion and gave them over to these gods who ruled over them.
QUICK SUMMARY
So, to recap, God disinherits the people of the earth due to their rebellion, scatters the people over the face of the earth, which ends up creating various nations, and assigns those nations to the care of other elohim, lower gods, members of His divine council or assembly (this council is referenced in Psalms 82, see scripture quoted below).
As mentioned above, the ’other gods’ referenced aren’t just stone or wooden idols that people carried around with them or had in their homes. They were actual lower gods (elohim) created by the God of the Bible, who are part of his divine council or assembly.
Later we see that these lesser gods, who God assigned to look over these new nations and people, don’t fulfill their jobs for God. They have free will, just as we do, and they rebel against Him by ruling unjustly and luring the Israelites to worship them instead of God. This is referenced in Psalms 82:1-7 (GNT):
1 God presides in the heavenly council;
in the assembly of the gods he gives his decision:
2 “You must stop judging unjustly;
you must no longer be partial to the wicked!
3 Defend the rights of the poor and the orphans;
be fair to the needy and the helpless.
4 Rescue them from the power of evil people.
5 “How ignorant you are! How stupid!
You are completely corrupt,
and justice has disappeared from the world.
6 ‘You are gods,’ I said;
‘all of you are children of the Most High.’
7 But you will die like mortals;
your life will end like that of any prince.”
In verse 6 and 7 we discover that these gods will die like men due to their own rebellion.
Other scriptures that reference the tower of Babel event come from Daniel 7:14 (LSB), referencing all people and nations serving him as part of his Kingdom, one that will not be destroyed:
And to Him was given dominion,
Glory, and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not be taken away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.
NOW WHAT?
Since the people had rebelled against God and were now being overseen by other gods, God needed a new group of people of his own to usher in His kingdom. This effort begins with Abraham after the fall of Babel. Michael Heiser goes into this in great detail in his book Supernatural and The Unseen Realm. Both are must reads!
The tower of Babel story gives us insight into the people alive at that time - all living together as one, with one language and one God. God their Creator grants them free will and they use that freedom to turn their back on the God who loves them. They decide to pursue other pagan gods, who have also decided to use their free will to rebel against God in exchange for being praised and worshipped by these people.
This story helps us understand why the Tower was destroyed, how and why new languages were created, and why people were scattered resulting in many different nations. It also may explain some of the 'new' various peoples being encountered and discovered in North America, various islands, etc. You can read more about that on The Days of Peleg / Pangea page.
We can now see how this event dramatically changed the course of history for everyone up to present day!
God still very much believes in His creation, the human race, and isn’t willing to give up on them! He wants everyone to be part of his family. We have the free will to choose Him or not.
RESOURCES, RESEARCH & REFERENCES
Check out the Tower of Babel section of our Resources, Research & References page for books, documentaries, DVD’s, articles, biblical and extra-biblical information on this topic